Armor

Armor is an important concern for the hero entering the dungeon and is one of the primary things between you and death. Wearing armor will improve one's armor class, reducing it by the amount shown in the "AC" column in the table below. Some types of armor may also provide "magic cancellation", as shown in the "MC" column below. There are 7 slots for armor: helm, cloak, body armor, shirt, shield, gloves/gauntlets, and boots. Some armor items reduce one's ability to cast spells successfully, particularly shields and metal suits.

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If you put on cursed armor, or if it is cursed while you are wearing it, you will be unable to take it off. (The item will be identified as cursed when you try to remove it.) Cursed gloves will also prevent you from putting on or removing rings, and a cursed cloak or suit of body armor will prevent you from wearing or taking off body armor and shirts.

The inconvenience of cursed armor is amplified by the fact that armor generated cursed often also has negative enchantment, and that armor with negative effects tends to be generated cursed most of the time. This is why it is a good idea to check the BUC of a piece of armor before wearing it.

The effects of blessed armor are minor. Blessed armor is more resistant to curses, because it must be made unblessed before it can become cursed. Blessed armor also has a chance of resisting some sources of erosion.

Blessings and curses do not affect the magical abilities of most pieces of armor. A notable exception is a cursed oilskin cloak, which will only protect you from grabbing attacks 2/3 of the time. Similarly, any grease present on cursed armor will only prevent grabbing or mind-flaying attacks 2/3 of the time.

Monsters know armor enchantment and will switch to maximize total armor value, taking into account the base AC an item confers, the enchantment, and erosion, but not the BUC status.[1] However, tame monsters do not pick up any cursed objects.

Excepting elven armor and a wizard's cornuthaum, armor may only be safely enchanted up to +5 provided that you start from +3 and use a blessed scroll. Elven equipment and cornuthaums may be safely enchanted to +7 provided that you start from +5. Reading a blessed scroll of enchantment while wearing a +5 item, or a +7 elven item, might get you a higher bonus, or might overload and vaporize the item. Thus, by using armor alone, one can reach AC -47, or 57 points of protection, or even higher if one over-enchants. In practice, it is often somewhat below this, as characters give up a better AC for other protections and advantages. For example, a +5 shield of reflection will give 7 AC and reflection, but SDSM will give 14 and reflection, and allow two-weaponing. High boots and iron shoes will give 2 AC, but speed boots will give 1 and "very fast" speed. A cloak of protection gives AC 3, but other cloaks have other benefits.